


New Old Captain

by chyeahnursey



Series: Ford & the SMH [3]
Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Gen, bonding with the managers, froyo and feelings, meeting the old cap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-20
Updated: 2017-06-20
Packaged: 2018-11-16 08:40:27
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,941
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11249580
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chyeahnursey/pseuds/chyeahnursey
Summary: It's pretty hard being a theatre kid in charge of a hockey team, mostly because you don't recognize NHL players on sight, and you're probably going to say something embarrassing about Shakespeare.





	New Old Captain

Lardo was hunched over her laptop working on a write up for her final art project and Ford was across the table from her, finalizing room assignments for the boys’ upcoming (and final) roadie, when the front door opened and a voice called out, “Hello?”

“Jack?” Lardo scrambled out of her chair and into the front hallway. Ford leaned over to save Lardo’s document, then slowly followed after her. She didn't think she had met anyone on the team named Jack, but who else would be coming to the Haus? She ran through a mental roster of the team, but didn't come up with anything.

She found Lardo wrapped up in what looked like the world’s comfiest hug with a man who had to be a foot taller than her, and if he wasn't some sort of athlete, Ford would eat her rooming assignments. His arms, good lord.

“Who’s this, Ris?” He asked, catching sight of Ford.

“Ford, our new manager,” Lardo’s voice was muffled into his chest. “Ford, this is Jack. You should have told someone you were coming, Ransom and Holster made an extra practice today and everyone else is at the rink.”

Jack chuckled and released Lardo from the hug. “I actually came to see you, Bittle said this would probably be a good time since everyone else was out. But did I interrupt something you and Ford were working on?”

Lardo wrinkled her nose. “Well, Ford is working, I'm mostly just glaring at my laptop. What's up, is everything okay?”

“What, I'm not allowed to miss you?” Jack teased her. “Come on, show me what you're glaring at, maybe I can help.”

Jack and Lardo headed back into the kitchen, Ford trailing awkwardly after them, still not really sure who Jack was, and not sure if she was intruding or not, given that he had apparently come to the Haus just to see Lardo - or Ris, as he had called her. The two of them sat down, and Ford hovered awkwardly in the doorway for a modem the before Lardo saw her.

“You done the rooming assignments?”

“Um, almost?” Ford hated that it sounded like a question.

“Cool, come finish ‘em up and I'll take a look while Jack looks at my final.”

Ford sat down in the chair Lardo pushed out for her and Jack smiled at her from across the table.

“Sorry, I'm pretty terrible at introducing myself. I'm Jack, I was on the team last year.”

“I was on the team,” Lardo mocked him. “More like Captain of the team for the third year in a row, who got us to the Frozen Four twice.”

Jack shrugged good naturedly. “There were a lot of other guys on the team too,” he said.

“Whatever,” Lardo rolled her eyes and bumped him with her shoulder. “I'll just have to be proud for you then.” Ford would swear she saw Jack go red, just a little bit.

“I think you and Bittle have that covered,” he said. “Now, art final?”

“Solid deflection Zimmermann,” Lardo said, passing him her laptop. Lardo doodles contentedly in her sketchbook while Ford finishes the last the last two rooms, and Jack reads over her final. Ford waited while Lardo checked over the room assignments, and was pleased when Lardo gave her a thumbs up and put a little smiley face after the last room.

“You are going to do just fine with the rooms next year,” Lardo told her. “The new kids will probably throw you off for the first two or three roadies, then you’ll get it figured out. Don’t worry if that happens, okay?”

“Okay,” Ford said, writing a little note in the journal she had dedicated to hockey notes. New frogs will throw off rooming assignments - do not panic.

Jack laughed softly and Ford looked up to see him watching the two girls. “Remember the first time you did room assignments Ris? Me with Holster, Ransom with Shitty and Johnson with Marsh?”

“Disasters all around,” Lardo said sadly. “Hopefully this will save her from that.”

“You’re a great mentor,” Ford reassured her. “I definitely feel prepared.”

“That will last about 2 minutes in the actual season,” Lardo laughed. “But you’ll be good. It’s nice to know I don’t have to worry so much about the team next year,” she directed that last part to Jack.

“And to think, the team thinks you’re all stoic and tough, when really you’re a marshmallow,” Jack teased.

“I’m also stoic and tough,” Lardo corrected.

“And still down for froyo?” Jack asked.

“Um, yeah, always.” Lardo was already half out of the kitchen and ready to go, jamming her feet into her sneakers as she tried to grab her jacket. “You’re paying, right dude?”

“Of course, gotta help out the starving art student,” Jack said, handing Lardo her coat while he steadied her with one so she didn’t faceplant in the hall. “Are you coming Ford?”

“Oh, uh, sure, thanks,” Ford stumbled over her words as she joined them in the front hall and laced up her boots. As they walked out of the Haus, Jack between the two girls and one arm draped around Lardo’s shoulders, he said, “So, Ford, I hear you’re in theatre. Doing any plays this year?”

“We just finished one up, actually, but I’m, uh, not on stage, I do stage managing and backstage stuff mostly.”

“Oh, so that should help when you have to deal with the crazy team,” Jack smiled. “That’s awesome. So much goes on backstage and before the show even gets on stage and people don’t always realize how much you do, eh?”

“Um, yeah.” Ford blinked at him, surprised that he seemed to have even a general idea of how theatre worked.

Lardo snickered, and from his other side said, “His mom is Alicia Zimmermann.”

“What.” Ford stopped dead in her tracks. “Oh my gosh, I have a seriously bad bootleg of her in Twelfth Night. I love that play, she was so good as Olivia. Oh my gosh, that’s your mom?”

Jack laughed and he and Lardo stopped and waited for her to catch up. “I’ll have to tell her you liked it. She was always worried about doing Shakespeare, she felt like she spent too much time worrying about what the words meant instead of actually conveying it to the audience.”

Ford nodded, catching up to the other two. “Shakespeare can feel that way, definitely. I love it though, I have the whole Arden works and I tried to read a new one each semester, which is hard on top of all the other stuff we have to read for class, but I didn’t have a Shakespeare class this year and none of my profs really talked about him, because everyone talks about him, so I felt like I had to take it on myself? I actually made it through 3, well I guess The Merry Wives of Windsor doesn’t really count because I worked on it with a community theatre group in high school but it’s been a while.”

Jack hummed and nodded. “I’ll confess, I never understood him much.” He came to a stop in front of a sleek black car. “I think we should probably drive, looks like it might rain later.” Lardo fist pumped and dove into the front seat, while Ford slid into the back. The topic of conversation in the car changed to Lardo’s final project, Lardo trying to explain her vision of how it would be presented, Jack nodding and agreeing at the appropriate moments.

“So, that’s what I’m trying to do,” Lardo concluded as they pulled into the parking lot down the street from the froyo shop. “But don’t ask me what I’m doing next year, because I have no idea and I don’t want to think about it.”

Jack turned off the car and looked at Lardo. “You’ll figure it out,” he reassured her. “Even if it takes time, you’ll figure it out.”

“You and Shitty made it look so easy,” she muttered. “You still had to decide where you were going, but you know what you were doing. You had a plan.”

“You don’t have to have a plan yet,” Jack told her, squeezing her hand gently. “Hey, Ford?”

Ford started in surprise, somewhat convinced they’d forgotten she was there. “Yeah?”

“New assignment from the old captain. Make sure Ris is taking care of herself, and not just the team, okay?”

“Aye aye Cap,” Ford said, saluting him. Jack and Lardo both burst out laughing.

“Alright, froyo time,” Lardo declared. “And we’ll forget about the sappy bonding, at least for now.”

“As long as you teach me how to beat the guys at beer pong,” Ford said, climbing out of the car. “The theatre crew mostly does flip cup.”

“Don’t worry, young padawan, I won’t let the manager legacy fail,” Lardo said, draping her arm around Ford’s shoulders. “Now let’s see how much of Jack’s money we can spend on candy toppings.”

~~~

The three of them returned to the Haus almost two hours later, having demolished their froyo - Lardo and Ford did cover theirs in candy toppings, while Jack looked on in mild horror - and having talked the rest of the time. Lardo and Jack had told her more stories about Shitty and the team the year before, and Ford had laughed so hard she’d almost made herself sick. She’d found out why Jack looked familiar (his face was on about every billboard in Providence, and she’d been there a few times recently hunting down obscure theatre trappings) and Lardo had shown her photos of her bedazzling art final the year before.

They stumbled into the Haus together, laughing at one of Ford’s stories about the horrible lead actor she’d just finished a show with, and how one of the actresses had been so mad at him she’d broken a prop when she had to hit him in the final show, and found most of the team in the living room. Bitty practically vaulted over the couch as everyone else was yelling “JACK!” to give Jack a fist bump and drag him into the kitchen for some pie.

Ford gathered up the stuff she’d left behind, said goodbye to the boys, and headed back to her dorm to catch up on some theatre readings she’d been putting off. She’d barely hit the corner when Lardo caught up with her.

“Thanks for taking on those rooming assignments,” Lardo said.

“Thanks for showing me how to do them,” Ford replied. “I know it helps you a lot now but it’s gonna help me for next year, so.” She shrugged.

Lardo shrugged in return. “Well, I never had anyone to teach me this junk, the least I can do is pass on what I do know.”

“And your beer pong knowledge.”

“That too,” Lardo smiled at her.

“Hey, question.”

“Shoot.”

“Does Bitty… know that Jack likes him?”

Lardo stopped and stared at her. “What?”

“Jack. I’m pretty sure - no, I’m like, 99.9% sure that boy has a crush on Bitty. At first I thought he didn’t like him, because he kept calling him Bittle? But when Bitty came over to say hi, I could practically see the cartoon cupids around his head.”

Lardo kept staring at her, then burst out laughing.

“What?” Ford asked, a little defensively.

“No, I just… okay, hang on, I have to send a text and then I can explain.” Lardo pulled out her phone and sent off a quick text as they continued walking.

“Okay then. Wait, one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Are Jack’s hugs as cozy as they look?”

**Author's Note:**

> So Ford interacting with the SMH dudes is probably going to become a series. 
> 
> Jack's hugs are wonderful, more people should experience them. 
> 
> Ford definitely has a huge crush on Jack (the arms! the face!), not that she would act on it, because he's obviously head over heels for Bitty (Jack "Shows on Face" Zimmermann).
> 
> Also! Jack & Lardo, what a great friendship, let's love them more :)  
> (This whole fic may or may not have happened because someone posted a screencap of Jack and Lardo hugging when she got back from her semester abroad.)


End file.
